Day: February 28, 2024

WASHINGTON: Trkiye rescued 17 irregular migrants in the Aegean Sea after Greek authorities pushed them back into Turkish territorial waters, authorities said Tuesday. Coast guard units rescued the migrants, including a child, from a rubber boat off Cesme district in the western province of Izmir on Monday, the Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement. Trkiye has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution. Ankara and global rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece's illegal practice, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable migrants, including women and children. Source: Anadolu Agency

ISTANBUL: Since artificial intelligence (AI) erupted onto the scene, experts and scientists have been making inroads into using its potential to help humanity avoid climate calamity. Billions of people around the world face growing risks as the planet continues to approach 1.5 C of global warming, already manifesting in devastating disasters from flooding to droughts and heatwaves. Today, scientists and experts from diverse fields are devoting vast resources, expertise, and ingenuity in the quest to address this planet-wide threat, with AI, unsurprisingly, emerging as a promising avenue towards expediting this effort. According to a 2023 report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google, AI can potentially mitigate between 5-10% of global greenhouse emissions by 2030. One of the ways AI can help make this happen is by sifting through massive expanses of digital data and finding patterns and insights that may prove crucial to assessing the challenge and potential solutions, according to Alp Kucukelbir , an adjunct professor of computer science at Columbia University. Besides being the chief scientist at Fero Labs, a company that offers AI-driven manufacturing process optimization software, Kucukelbir is also a member of Climate Change AI, a member of an international network of academics, industry members, and policymakers focused on the role machine learning can play in tackling climate change. 'Machine learning and AI technology are very good at taking very large amounts of data and finding the signal, the important parts, the salient parts from very large data,' Kucukelbir tells Anadolu in an interview on how AI can help, as well as hurt, climate action and policy. Besides detecting carbon and methane leakage, crunching mountains of data and scientific papers through AI empowers policymakers to make informed choices and implement effective climate strategies, according to Kucukelbir, who said: 'AI can help understand and access a much larger amount of information that helps us make better decisions about what to do about the climate.' From reducing energy consumption and waste to increasing the circularity of our economy and adapting to new realities, AI can help cut down on our impact on the environment. 'It could be the heating and cooling of buildings. It could be optimizing the route of maritime shipping so that you use less gas to make the same route. It could be the optimization of traffic lights to minimize the number of times cars stop and go up. So, all of these are cases where you're reducing the amount of energy, but you're achieving the same outcome,' explained Kucukelbir. 'The food system is a very good example of this. We use enormous amounts of fertilizer, herbicide, and pesticides on an industrial scale to make the food that we use. Using AI, you can really tailor exactly how much is needed so that you don't use excess amounts of these kinds of things.' Invaluable tool, no silver bullet Yet, as with any powerful tool, AI comes with its challenges and considerations. According to Ku cukelbir, 'The first thing to make sure that's very clear is what AI cannot do.' While AI has the potential to become an invaluable tool for climate action, it is important not to lose sight of the fact that it will still be humans who will have to actually take that action. 'AI, machine learning, and software cannot physically move molecules and physically change things,' he said. 'When we think about climate change mitigation, we need to remove the carbon in the air and we need to put less carbon in the air. This is the movement of carbon. AI is not directly doing these things.' Both AI's limitations and its strengths point to the importance of gathering data and ensuring that it is available to those who need to use it. 'AI is a data driven software technology. If we don't have data in a particular application area, we can't build good promising AI solutions,' says Kucukelbir. He and other experts have emphasized the need for governments to incentivize data gathering, standardization, and sharing acr oss universities, companies, governments, and others to 'make sure that we have a common area, a foundation for data.' 'But the biggest challenge in practice is the people and the talent challenge,' he underlined. For Kucukelbir, collaboration between experts in various domains and AI practitioners is key to unlocking AI's full potential in the fight against climate change. 'There are people who have dedicated their entire careers to specialty knowledge about energy systems, about making cement, about growing wheat, things like that. These are not the same people who have computer science, machine learning, AI expertise. 'And on the other side, machine learning, AI experts, they don't understand the actual domain application, they are not experts in those things,' he said. 'The biggest barrier there is to make sure that these two sets of people have effective ways of talking to each other, collaborating with each other. And my view there is that the tools that are being developed today are enabling that interaction going forward.' Carbon footprint and expert collaboration Ensuring collaboration will be crucial for the future of AI's role in addressing climate change, especially in overcoming ways that this technology could potentially impede efforts to stop global warming. Besides the carbon footprint of AI itself, Kucukelbir acknowledges the dual nature of AI, capable of either amplifying harmful practices or driving sustainable solutions. 'Just like any other technology, AI can be used to make the matter worse,' he said. 'What is the protection against that? It is the same protection that we have against all technology is to have a system that penalizes and disincentivizes such actions.' On the emissions that AI technology causes, Kucukelbir said this is also a critical concern as it rapidly becomes more widespread. One study that he was involved in showed that currently, greenhouse emissions due to AI are significantly less than 1% of the global total, though it remains uncertain what this figure wi ll be in the future. AI-enmeshed 'operating system of the world' Peering into the future, Kucukelbir paints a compelling picture of AI's role in shaping global sustainability efforts. Envisioning a world where it is seamlessly integrated into every facet of our lives. He foresees a future where technology guides us towards more efficient resource usage and sustainable practices. 'In the next five to 10 years, I see machine learning and AI as being quite literally part of the so-called operating system of the world. Every single sector of the economy will have AI and machine learning in it that is guiding us humans to make better decisions,' he said. 'They will be steering us towards minimizing the amount of waste, minimizing the amount of energy that we're using, but also making us more effective and efficient. We're going to be able to make more with less resources, make the same amount of things, faster.'??????? Source: Anadolu Agency

New financial technologies and legislative developments at the EU level constitute the biggest challenges facing European markets, the chairs of the Cyprus and Greek Securities and Exchange Committees said during a roundtable discussion organised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday afternoon in Nicosia, in the presence of Finance Minister Makis Keravnos, Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki, members of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance and other stakeholders. In his presentation, CySEC Chairman George Theocharides referred to the rapid technological evolution of capital markets and the growing demand for sustainable investments, which, he said, are significantly reshaping the global investment landscape and require close supervision. He also referred to the challenges of the current period, such as the uncertainty in the markets regarding the level of interest rates and consequently inflation, which is causing problems for both the European and the global economy and is diversifying the playing field between the US, Europe and Asia. For her part, the Chair of the Hellenic Capital Market Commission, Vasiliki Lazarakou, highlighted the cost of the green growth transition, as well as the volatile political environment in many parts of the world, including the US and the EU, with crucial elections taking place throughout this year. The two supervisors also referred to the implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) before the end of 2024, as well as the adoption of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), aiming to enhance the operational resilience of the financial sector. They also agreed on the need for closer cross-border cooperation between supervisors, given the changes in financial legislation, and coupled with the development of new technologies and the demand for more sustainable investment products, which they said ensures speed in information exchange on and the robust management of supervisory issues. In a brief intervention after the p resentations, Finance Minister Makis Keravnos commented on the different approaches between America and Europe in dealing with investment, adding that the EU has a tendency to overregulate that hurts competitiveness and economic growth. He also said that Cyprus is in favour of an EU capital markets union, as such a development would provide greater security for investors. During the discussion, questions were also asked to the heads of the two supervisory authorities on the main internal challenges they face as institutions, with Larazakou noting the difficulty of staffing due to complex procedures, while Theocharides pointed to the benefits of a possible privatisation and financial independence of CySEC without the need to rely on state sponsorship. Source: Cyprus News Agency

ANKARA: French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal accused far-right Marine Le Pen, a leading figure in the rising far-right in the country in recent years, of being "Putin's soldier." The accusation comes amid escalating tensions in the French National Assembly over President Emmanuel Macron's statements regarding the potential deployment of troops to Ukraine. During a session of questioning in the assembly, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally Party (RN), criticized Macron's openness to the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. "Sending troops to Ukraine is not out of the question," she said, adding that Macron's words posed an "existential risk for 70 million French people and especially French troops stationed in Eastern Europe." Le Pen sarcastically lambasted France's stance on supporting Ukraine, questioning the rationale behind prioritizing French military involvement over that of the US. 'While the US, the sole world empire, refuses to intervene, France seems eager to become the glo bal enforcer of justice. What divine law mandates this?" she said. Prime Minister Attal, in response to Le Pen's remarks, harshly reacted by referring to an article published in The Washington Post on Dec. 30, alleging RN's connection to Moscow. Attal accused Le Pen and her party of being pro-Russian, saying: "You were waiting for the first opportunity to remind us of your true loyalty (to whom)." "We should ask if Vladimir Putin's troops are already in our country. I'm talking about you and your circle," Attal said, accusing Le Pen of being "Putin's soldier." Attal also claimed that Le Pen advocated for a military alliance with Russia during the 2022 presidential campaign, stating: "If we had listened to you back then, we would not support Ukrainians against this attack." During the closing speech of the conference on supporting Ukraine, which was held in France on Monday, Macron said they would do whatever it takes to ensure that Russia does not win this war. To achieve this goal, Macron conveyed the message that "anything is possible," emphasizing that sending troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out. Source: Anadolu Agency

ISTANBUL: NATO's Operation Sea Guardian (OSG) concluded its first focused maritime security patrol of the year in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) said on Wednesday. Led by Turkish Capt. Adil TUFEKCI aboard the TCG Burgazada corvette, the three-week mission involved support from various air, surface, and subsurface assets from Trkiye, the US and Greece, including submarines, patrol aircraft, and intelligence units, MARCOM said in a statement. 'NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Forces also supported the Task Group throughout the patrol period,' it added. OSG aims to maintain Maritime Situational Awareness (MSA), deter terrorism, and foster cooperation among members.? This patrol marks the first of six planned operations scheduled for this year. Source: Anadolu Agency

On Wednesday afternoon, the United States Ambassador to Cyprus, Julie D. Fisher, opened 'The Womanly Face of War' art exhibit at the passageway under Eleftheria Square in Nicosia, joined by Members of Parliament, representatives of the diplomatic community, government officials, and members of the public who came to express their support. As a press release by the U.S. Embassy in Nicosia notes, the exhibit, presented by the Embassy in collaboration with Sunseed Art and Resilient Ukraine, on the solemn occasion of the second anniversary of Russia's re-invasion of Ukraine, depicts and communicates the roles, challenges, and remarkable resilience of Ukrainian women. The art installation in Nicosia follows the exhibit's debut at the Limassol Old Port on February 22. The exhibit remains in Eleftheria Square until March 4, and will then move to Castle Square in Larnaca, completing its tour of three Cypriot cities through to International Women's Day on March 8, the press release concludes. Information on the exh ibit is available on the U.S. Embassy's website: https://cy.usembassy.gov/pr-the-womanly-face-of-war/ Source: Cyprus News Agency